Petition For MannKind (MNKD) To Take Sanofi (SNY) To Court

Hi, my name is Joshua Rodriguez. I’m the owner and founder of CNAFinance.com. I have been following MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ: MNKD) for quite some time. Unfortunately, the story is a sad one. MNKD has fallen dramatically over the past year, and I believe that these declines are the result of willful and malicious acts by Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE: SNY). Below, I will explain how Sanofi’s willful and malicous acts caused the declines we’ve seen on MannKind over the past year. At the bottom of this page, there is an opportunity to leave comments. If you are a holder of MNKD stock and agree with the statements made herein, please sign the petition by leaving a comment on this page. In the comment, please state your name and the amount of shares you own in the stock.

Sanofi’s Willful And Malicious Acts Cost MannKind Investors Billions!

Over the past several years, MannKind went through the process of developing Afrezza. Afrezza is an inhaled insulin that is designed to treat diabetes. Before Afrezza, diabetics would have to inject their insulin, an invasive and painful process. As a result of the overwhelming benefits of Afrezza, it only makes sense that the treatment would be relatively easy to market, leading to gains for MNKD and its investors.

On November 8th of 2014, MannKind and Sanofi entered an agreement that gave Sanofi the rights to commercialize Afrezza. Under this agreement, Sanofi was charged with marketing Afrezza in a way that would be beneficial to both MannKind and Sanofi, as well as their investors.

Throughout the course of the year 2015, Sanofi delayed the commercialization of Afrezza. The company held the treatment in the pre-launch phase for several months, offering little to nothing by way of updates or plans of progress. This is because Sanofi was doing little to nothing in the first place.

In mid-2015, investors learned that Sanofi had started the Direct to Consumer phase of marketing for MannKind’s Afrezza. During this phase, Sanofi was expected to market Afrezza to consumers, leading to increased sales. While Sanofi did place a few magazine ads and launch a poorly managed online marketing plan, the company did the bare minimum to market Afrezza. As a result, sales remained low and MannKind’s stock price continued to fall.

On January 5th, 2016, it was announced that the agreement between MNKD and SNY would come to an end. Unfortunately, this led to further declines as there is currently very little available with regard to future marketing plans.

Why Sanofi’s Delays Were Willful And Malicious

Sanofi is currently in the process of marketing several insulin injections. Insulin injections and Afrezza are in direct competition with each other. However, Sanofi makes more money per unit on most insulin injections than it does per unit on Afrezza. As a result, if Afrezza were to become profitable, Sanofi would lose money. So, to avoid this occurrence, in my opinion, Sanofi willfully and maliciously delayed progress on Afrezza, costing MNKD and its investors billions of dollars!

Please Sign This Petition

This petition will be sent to MannKind Corporation on March 31st, 2016. If you are an investor and would like to see Sanofi pay for the money their decisions took out of your pocket, please sign the petition below by leaving a comment with your name and the amount of shares you hold in MNKD. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated and only petition signatures will be approved for viewing. With that said, it may take up to 1 business day for your signature to be seen live.

About The Author

Joshua Rodriguez

Hey everyone, I'm Joshua Rodriguez. I'm the founder of CNA Finance as well as several other sites. If you'd like to connect with me, follow me on Google+ or Twitter! I'd love to see ya there. Also, if you're looking for top quality content for your blog, news outlet, or any other website for that matter, please reach out to me at Info@CNAFin.com!
Legal Disclaimer - CNA Finance is NOT an investment advisor. All investment decisions should be well thought out and made with the help of a an investment advisor. For our full legal disclaimer, please scroll to the bottom right of this page.

2700 shares. SNY did not put a good faith effort to sell the drug, then walked out of the deal after leaving MNKD in the dust. I believe they did this because they KNEW Afrezza was a direct competitor to SNY’s own products, and this deal was a better loss than the product share loss that would have happened if the public new about Afrezza.

Thank you Joshua for doing this. I am holding 7000 shares now, please count me in. It is time for a class action law suite..not on MNKD but on SNY for back stabbing and will fully killing their compitition. The law firms advertising about class action law suite on MNKD should be ashamed for allowing a French drug company with shady past trying to bankrupt a great American innovation .. delivering insulin though a tiny inhalers instead of needle pokes.

I have 6,250 shares. Mannkind has been trapped in a pissing match between the previous CEO of SNY, Chris Viebacher and the new CEO, Olivier Brandicourt, imho. A successful launch of Afrezza would have affirmed the forward-looking strategy of Mr. Viehbacher and undermined the tenure of Mr. Brandicourt. From the moment Mr. Brandicourt took control of SNY, all mention of Afrezza by SNY ceased as did any bonafide effort to market the drug. Mr. Brandicourt made the decision on day one of his tenure to kill Afrezza in order to eliminate the considerable expense of it’s launch, thereby improving SNY’s short-term balance sheet and Mr. Brandicourt’s standing as CEO. In so doing, he hoped to simultaneously eliminate a formidably competitive drug to SNY’s present (Apidra) and future roster of injectable mealtime insulins. Hopefully Mr. Brandicourt’s strategy will ultimately fail and Afrezza will rise from the ashes to burn Sanofi’s diabetic franchise to the ground.

I hold 85k shares. I bought immediately after the partnership. I saw this as revolutionary with no equal for users that fly for a living so held strong. Since Feb 2015 I have been visiting my endo and he says the Sanofi never mention Afreeza. I was never able to find an endo in the Austin area that knew of it. When I called their “support” line the person was rude and I wondered why the citites they ran their ads in were cities where, with the exception of 2, there were no sales at all – did they intentionally broadcast in cities they weren’t canvasing? This is a complete farce of a marketing campaign.

-Breach evident – the question of whether or not Sanofi’s actions have caused or will cause irrevocable damage to the future valuation of TECHNOSPHERE is the only meaningful question. It is my desire as a long term investor that this is not the case, however, in the event it ends up being the case, the potential liability on Sanofi’s behalf would be comparable to current valuations of companies such as (REGN, CELG, GILD, AMGN).

Holding 10K shares and will support the petition if MNKD goes bankrupt.
Possibly Viehbacher can be compelled to testify under some court action. I am sure he is held silent by a long term CDA.
Maybe dramatize this story and put it on HBO or include it in the current new show, Billionaires, as a study in how big money, hedge funds, and big pharma/business sometimes work to the detriment of the public good. Shkreli and the greedy shorts make for the terrible villains, while Al Mann the sweet, gentle do-gooder is the protagonist who has made enormous contributions to our society and healthcare!! I sure hope Al Mann prevails (and we prevail also).

28,000 shares. I work with a GP that has 35 providers under him. Not one of them even knew about Afrezza until two weeks ago when a SNY rep dropped off a pamphlet. The two people I know who use Afrezza can’t amagine life with out it. How dare they keep Afrezza away from the people who’s lives would be forever changed for the good!

6000 shares owned and control another 3000 shares. Sanofi’s behavior is nothing short of criminal. Praying for a pharma to replace Sanofi and promote Afrezza in a manner that both Mannkind and the diabetes public deserve.

There is no reason that Afrezza should not be taking off like a rocket! I have family members who are diabetic and this course of treatment is less invasive than injection, and simply, a better way. Just like Uber has disrupted the taxi industry for the better, Skype has disrupted long distance for the better and Netflix has disrupted the home video industry for the better, Affrezza is in position to disrupt, for the better, how patients are treated. I gladly sign this position and will join any class action, or other, law suit against Sanofi to recover what their willful and malicious neglect and breach of contract has caused shareholders to lose financial position and investment.

Still own 4000 shares. Between Sanofi’s total lack of effort to market Affreza and the one-two punch of Jim Cramer’s TheStreet and The Motley Fool each posting a negative article within 24 hours of every uptick in stock price, it’s been a heck of a year. Can’t believe the SEC does absolutely nothing, as the arrival of the negativity from these two sources is like clockwork. Wouldn’t want these guys to lose money on their shorts. So yes, I’d like to see Sanofi sued for breach of contract. Hope Mannkind and Affreza can turn it around…for my family, for all small investors, for diabetes patients, for mankind.

30,000 shares of Mannkind. Totally mislead by Sanofi on this one. They did the bare minimum. All early adopters are ecstatic with their results as evidenced by websites and blogs. This is life changing technology which has been mishandled by the distribution company. I am totally in favor of the petition.

Between my husband and I and two of our kids we own 22,000 shares. I have been wondering what Sanofi was doing all last year….nothing apparently! Big pharma should be taken down when they willfully obstruct great products that benefit so many for corporate greed. grrrrrrrrrrr!

I own 26,000 shares but owned up to 40,000 before it tanked. I`ve lost upwards of 200,000$ This should have been a great product but with no tv advertising it didn`t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going to happen. I still think with the proper management this product could find its way into mainstream America. Lets hope and pray for the best.

I hold 10,000 shares and agree this was a planned take down of a revolutionary product. Sanofi should not be allowed to manipulate the market and keep this life-saving treatment from millions of people. Count me in!

I have purchased over 90,000 shares. About 25% them at the high-level mark of $10.00. Many ago my friends Head up to 30,000 shares also. As I believed the drug was promising I continued to buy as the share price went down to lower my average cost.
Things always seemed a little amiss at times between the two companies. But there was always a hopeful message that they were working through the issues. It is now apparent that MannKind had all intentions of working with Sanofi to do the right thing but Sanofi was always working hard against getting the product on to the market.
The real issue of this situation is, as shareholders of mankind do we have any standing with Sanofi? I do not believe we do unless initiates the lawsuit and we get added as additional parties. We did not have a contractual relationship directly with Sanofi. The upside is I do believe that MannKind could be successful in a suit against Sanofi.
But a suit of the kind could take 5 or more years to go to trial. That probably would not help any of us if the company or to go bankrupt. As a creditor to a bankrupt company the common shareholder typically gets zero. The only winner and most lawsuits are the attorneys.
Let’s hope that the company has enough evidence to force a decent settlement without a lawsuit. Perhaps even up to the amount of the total milestones agreed too.
I do believe that MannKind has known about this issue for at least six months and they were working to move forward to get the agreement terminated. It probably became evident to MannKind management shortly after Brandicourt came on board at Sanofi. They knew it had to come to a head so that they could move on before the company was financially destroyed.
MannKind got back the most important thing they needed and that is worldwide distribution rights and the ability to start marketing in the US on their own.

The ball is now back in their court to find the right way to market Afrezza. I believe they will make the right attempt and hopefully get us a return on our investment.

The moral to this story is one should never trust a French company to have any integrity.

Own 21,100 shares and have been a real long investor. Never sold a share since I believed in the value of this product for humanity and the company. I never trusted SNY from day 1 because Afrezza was in direct conflict and a serious threat to their bottom line profit generating drugs and it’s success would have meant shooting their own gold laying geeses. I have no doubt that, like many other big pharma and tech companies do, their intention was to ensure Afrezza never became successful and a threat by partnering and killing any prospects of success and getting MNKD to go bankrupt. I believe in divine justice and we’ll see what happens to SNY soon. I am in for the petition and tell me where to sign.

28818 shares, another 10000 or so from family and another 40000 or so belonging to friends. Count me, my family and my friends in this petition to sue Sanofi who screwed MNKD and Al Mann and buried Afrezza on PURPOSE. It is very apparent.

I’m puzzled why the vast majority of commenters have shares vs options. Most option traders seem to swear about options compared to shares. Anyway, I had 18K shares of MNKD at one time but finally sold them all around $3.50 for heavy losses when it seemed clear to me that I’d lose much more if I didn’t sell. This stock was manipulated bad enough and then when SNY did very little to help MNKD/Afrezza be successful, things just got worse. Short Story Made Long — I support any action to hold Sanofi accountable for their part in ruining MNKD/Afrezza. Funkers…

I suggest you deliver your complaint to France’s Economy Minister Emmanuel Macon who is trying to promote French startups with the view of getting foreign companies to invest in France. This should be seen as a huge black eye in that program.

I own 68,000 shares and I am ashamed to say that I never saw this coming even though there was every sign of bad faith from the moment they launched that ridiculous “Surprise its Insulin” ad, which made it look like a party favor. They never mentioned the obvious needle-free and improved experience. Meaning that SNY sandbagged the ad agency in favor of their other products.

Should have run. But now that I am stuck I can direct them to the best marketers of this kind of paradigm shift product. For one thing, US Doctors are paranoid about lung infusion. For another thing patients are terrified of losing the support of their Endos. This requires very intense social media marketing best not left to amateurs.

China is probably entirely different because the culture uniquely embraces breathing as in Ch’i energy. On the other hand, they have much higher smoking rates so the black box warning could be a problem if it travels.

I still believe in this product but there is no way this management team could possibly market it. A far more innovative, agressive and younger group is required.

I have deep expertise in tobacco marketing and they can have my expertise for no other reason than I would like to see my money back.

As for the lawyers, good luck. They get 50% of whatever settlement and the shareholders get precious little.

I suggest you try to embarrass the French Government enough that they make restitution via a fund to pay for the best marketing team to put this product back in its feet. It should also include money for TV ads.

As for Social Media, this has fantastic story that can easily go viral in the right way. But it needs to be supported properly trhough diabetes groups etc. It also has to be driven to the right doctors. There is just no way they can expect every Dr. to embrace it. They need to pick the right ones and coddle them with amazing new business. They need a new kind of sales team and so on.

I have 20,500 shares and really would like to see Mannkind finally work a plan and go after Sanofi. I don’t care if that will be a pay out by Sanofi which can improve our balance sheet or lawsuite. I leave it for them to decide but for God sake start to communicate with your shareholders as to what concrete steps you be taking to spread the word around the world about Afrezza. No more promises just action and stop with this secrecy it does not work.

I have 20000 Shares. Afrezza have made its news all the way to India. I know severa doctors want this for their patients and are importing from USA . If MNKD ensures rapid commercialization and getting approval from EU, JApan, India, Asia, SouthAmerica. MNKD can boost its sales exponentially. GO MNKD and not let the Bears and Lawsuits deter you.

Afrezzza jave made its news in India. I know doctors trying to get a trail package to its patient. There can be huge demand .MNKD should focus on rapid commercialization and approvals from EU,ASIA,JAPAN, BRAZIL, INDIA Go MNKD. Don’t let these lawsuits or bears deter you..You have potential to make .79 stock a 79$ stock

I own a few shares and I will be happy to sign a petition to help MNKD to recover their reputation and respect. The entire story is just a great material for a movie. It is unfortunate that something like that happened to a great company and most of all to the company founder Al Mann. Any company that Al Mann founded and built through his career was extraordinary as the man himself. There was nothing ever in his long successful career that was dishonest and Sanofi should pay for what they have done or rather haven’t done to launch and distribute truly amazing product. I just hope that there will be justice done and the product will be successfully delivered to millions of people who desperately need it. My bets are on Al Mann and his team!

I have over 150,000 shares and it was obvious after the first three months of the agreement that the new Sanofi CEO was delaying the real launch of Afrezza to market his new product line to gain market share.

I own 12.000 shares. I am not quite sure how a lawsuit would turn out in the end as everything should be done not to get Afrezza into the hands of SNY anymore. They would lock it away of a high-priced needlephobic niche, not the revolutionary mass product diabetics worldwide would deserve to enjoy. But it should be made very clear to SNY that their action has been noted by the community.

7000 shares – Purpose of Sanofi making a deal with Mannkind was to suppress Afrezza out of the gate. Sanofi (Goliath) knew from the beginning that Afrezza (David) would have been, could of been, and still can… be the future inhaled diabetic drug of choice. However, Sanofi maliciously ran Afrezza into the ground for they feared what they cared about most Toujeo and possible future drug Lixisenatide. They knew it would get the support of the writers to whom also indirectly and some maybe directly would pounce on Afrezza with nothing but negativity with hopes of driving Mannkind entirely out of the diabetic market field. If I were an Attorney, I would do a push comparison, e.g., Marketing, Sales Representatives, DTC, etc., of Toujeo and Afrezza. I would say… Bookem Dano!

I’ve always believed that the deal with Sanofi was a conflict of interest and that Sanofi deliberately with malicious intent failed to bring Affrezza to market because of there own personal gains. If any of you paid attention to the Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly picking up DeMarco Murray from the Dallas Cowboys was simply because he was a threat as a running back. Chip Kelly had no intention of really using his talent as a running back, but to just make sure no one else could use him either. Murray was benched just like Affrezza, which caused them both to lose their shine and ability to grow.

I second everything the other shareholders on here are saying, Sanofi needs to be taken down, i will encourage my husband to not prescribe Sanofi medications to his patients, what a CRIMINAL company, they need to feel pain for doing what they did and the only way is through their pocket book…Between my family and i around 15,000 shares…